Steal Yourself
by The Dragon Lover
Summary: It was going to be an in-and-out job. Break in, get the records, leave with no one the wiser. Easy-peasy. Nina should've known better. -A modern AU oneshot, that may or may not remain a oneshot, featuring some of the FEF Conquest kid-gen (including Velouria and Forrest, but you can only tag 4 chars). Written for a friend.


**Steal Yourself**

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It was going to be an in-and-out job. Break in, get the records, leave with no one the wiser. Easy-peasy.

Nina should've known better.

Or that is to say, 'The Master Thief Eponine' should've known, being an expert in reconnaissance and stealth. She had cased the joint, double-checked information on her target, and prepared about ten different escape routes in case she needed to abort. Back-ups for back-ups. She even had someone on speed dial in case she had to be busted out of jail. Unlikely, but not impossible. It was best to expect the worst.

And yet, she was still, somehow, taken by surprise by what she found inside. Although in all fairness, it wasn't inside at the beginning of her heist.

She knew the bustling city of Nohr had a history of questionable practices, especially in the scientific fields. Partly why the government really started to crack down on regulations, and why the police force had grown and improved so drastically. More than thirty years had passed since the first efforts to clean house. Yet there were still secrets being unearthed. Had Nina known about this facility before her snooping? Of course not, or she would've snooped sooner. Something like this begged to be brought out into the light—especially when it all lied underground one of the busiest subway stations in the country. Someone had gone to a _lot_ of trouble to hide this. Good thing she was paid to find trouble.

Despite the secrecy, there weren't a plethora of patrols to avoid. After slipping through a door that had probably been locked since before she was born, only a long and narrow staircase lied between her and the facility. The layers of dust on the floor made it clear this was an abandoned location.

That didn't mean the alarm system was anything to sneeze at. Someone was determined to keep this dirty laundry hidden. Important enough to avoid destroying it, too. Perhaps there was a way to access it from the outside? No matter, she was here because she hadn't found any other way without risking attention. The moment someone knew this place had piqued interest, the data saved here was in jeopardy. _And I know for a FACT someone's still keeping an eye out._

It took more time than she would've like to tamper with the feeds, but masking her presence to prevent early detection was imperative. After that, she had a long trek ahead. Flight after flight of stairs. Deeper and deeper she went. Though she checked her map constantly, everything seemed to be in order so far. Professional she was, she did a childish jig when she unlocked her destination. _Gotcha._ The door itself was difficult to open without putting her weight against it. A loud scrape revealed the cause was discarded wood and boxes. She winced. Not the subtlest entrance. Good thing the camera feed hadn't seemed to include audio.

_Wait. This can't be right._

Now Nina wasn't a scientist, so to her the equipment in this room seemed like something straight out of a movie. Massive generators, giant tubes containing unknown liquids and gasses, funky antennae and a metal arch over some kind of bench. Buttons and levers were placed on either side of a room-length window to what appeared to be a large observation room. It was interesting stuff, for sure. Definitely worth some digging. Problem was, none of this looked like the server room she'd been told would be here.

Maybe the information was outdated. Now how could she update it without having to hack into the network? _'Cause I'm sure as hell not leaving empty-handed._ She switched from nightvision to her headlamp, casting eerie shadows across the wall. The filing cabinets were a good, non-electronic place to start. She reached into her bag for another tool. In a world of technology that advanced at an accelerating pace, sometimes you couldn't quite beat an old school camera. The cabinets took some jimmying, only to fail her. _Empty. Figures._ She slammed it shut, huffing. Tracking the servers down would waste time she didn't have.

Fortunately (or perhaps unfortunately) for her, she never had to. Normally Lucky Master Thief Eponine was halfway to the door when a loud whirring caught her attention.

_Uh-oh._

She bolted. Then every light in the room snapped on, illuminating the science lab and its intruder. A swear escaped as she tripped over one of the boxes in her blind rush to the door. It was the collision with the wall behind it that took her out.

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Likely, she was only unconscious for a few seconds, maybe a minute at most. But it was enough time for trouble to find her, if the voices were anything to go by.

"Well, she's not dead."

"We've already established this, Velouria... but thank you for confirming."

Someone had moved her. She was lying on her back, legs straight and arms at her sides. Bright light danced across her eyelids. The whirring was loud enough that they raised their voices to be heard. A strange tingle on her temples made her involuntarily scrunch her forehead. _I better not have a concussion._

"Ah, I think she's waking up."

"She's been awake. Her heartrate picked up about a minute ago."

How the hell could this 'Velouria' tell that? Whatever. That was annoying. But, at least they didn't seem hostile. Sitting up, Nina raised an arm against the blinding light. How screwed was she? Five blobs. _Surrounded. Great._

"Wow, what a _cutie._"

"Soleil, please focus." The speaker knelt beside her, lowering his voice with the proximity. "Ma'am, are you alright?" World finally coming into focus, she found herself staring into quite the concerned, and boyish, face. A guy. Short blond hair, and eyes like fire opals. A cute guy. In her face.

_Double uh-oh._

Her jaw muscles locked up momentarily, but she pushed through just like she trained. It didn't stop her voice from trembling. "I-I'm fine." Who knows, maybe it would make them take pity and not turn her in.

Shaking it off, she took a quick inventory of the rest. One in a fur coat, another in tactical gear matching the cute guy's, a preppy-looking woman with curls, and... was that woman in a leotard? Something nagged her about the prep, but she didn't seem to recognize Nina. It didn't matter right now. If she could just get her phone, at least three of her escape plans could still work.

Then she realized just why the room was so noisy, and why the lights swirled. All other thoughts fled as her jaw dropped. True to some of her favorite sci-fi movies, there was a large swirling _something_ at the center of the room. Beneath the metal arch was some sort of recreation of a spiral galaxy that fluctuated in purples and pinks and reds too vivid to properly describe. The bench was still lowered—no, that was a rudimentary platform to stand on, or walk across. Because this looked suspiciously like, if it were even possible, if science had actually, really, truly advanced this far in this modern age... a portal.

There was a freakin' portal underneath Nohr.

_And we still use subways why?_

"It's quite a beautiful mystery," the leotard woman hummed. She cast her hand out towards it as if awaiting a lover. Her voice took on a dreamlike quality. "The fabric of the universe, brought into the visible plane. With this, we have walked across the cosmos. Dived into the ether. Soared through the skies between skies—"

"Yes, you're very poetic," the tactical woman cut in. She flipped long pink hair over her shoulder and sent a wink Nina's way. "But maybe save it for later? We're kind of in a hurry."

"Soleil's right. Time is short." Standing up, the man offered a hand up. "Forrest, I trust you healed her?" She reluctantly accepted.

"Yes, she should be fine to walk now." The prep's head tilted when Nina's attention jerked. "Is something the matter?"

_You're a dude._ No, wait, that would come out wrong. _You're not a woman?_ Still bad. Unable to think of anything better, Nina turned the names over in her mind. Surely they would've come up in her research, if they were attached to this place. Unless they were using codenames like her. Though, they didn't look like the kind of people interested in this facility. _They don't seem the infiltration type, either._

Mouth opening, she began, "Are you associated with—"

The portal hummed. The man jerked around, hand at his waist. "_Incoming!_"

Immediately, their demeanors changed. All turned towards the glow prepared for a fight. Even the one who had 'healed' her (whatever that meant) put a protective arm around her shoulders, jutting out his other hand. Nina would've protested if a reverberating shriek hadn't pierced her skull. She gripped it, and gaped.

Something about the portal had changed, deepening the rainbow into something less mesmerizing, more gut-wrenching. A shape clawed from within, stretching the limits of the visible spiral. It reached, and reached, and tore. In came a truly horrendous stench. The reds and purples coalesced into a dark form, something massive and long. It was threading through the arch inch-by-inch. Her skin crawled as threads of itself separated and reformed, struggling to stay together. She couldn't believe her eyes. _What... IS that?_

There seemed to be a delay before it could form properly. It hadn't fully condensed before a crackle of energy collided with its hide. Another shriek.

"Velouria! Soleil!"

The woman in the fur coat darted forward, unarmed. But her arms stretched in their sleeves, back hunching, gait widening. In the few strides it took for her to cross the room, Velouria had become a snarling beast, grasping the sides of the portal monster's head with massive claws. As she yanked until its neck bent painfully, Soleil had a clear shot to riddle it with bullets from her sidearm. The poetic woman wasn't to be left out, leaping far higher than should be possible to alight on the arch. Slapping the metal with hands glowing same as the portal, she sent loads of dark electricity shooting down it.

"Brace!" she commanded.

Forrest's hand was glowing as well. The floor held fast to Nina's shoes. In the next instant, sparks showered everyone, and a shockwave threatened to knock them over. By the glow on their feet, they were held in place by the same force. The monster shrieked as the swirling galaxy flickered, then winked out of existence. Yet it was still there, albeit missing part of... could you even call it a body?

"Block," shouted their apparent leader.

The beast still had its mouth open, something gathering in its maw. Then, checking off the last box on the cliche list, out came what could only be a deadly breath it began to sweep across the room. It was basically a dragon, of _course_ she found a place that could summon actual dragons, that was the only logical way she'd meet her end.

Before Nina could even scream, her protector swept his hand in a circle and yanked downwards. The same glow that had lit up everyone's shoes covered the dragon's snout. It crashed to the floor, cutting off the attack and allowing Velouria to leap onto it. She must've been even stronger than she looked, because the giant thing couldn't seem to wrestle her off. Then their leader darted forward, drawing a glowing blade—_of course he did—_to angle downwards into where its skull might be. He grasped the hilt with two hands and, with a battle cry, forced the blade down until it hit metal.

Finally, the dragon went limp.

Leaping off, Velouria began reverting to her much daintier form. Ophelia landed on the tips of her toes. Both geared individuals reholstered their weapons, the man's blade vanishing into the hilt like some lazer-greatsword. Without warning, their slain opponent burst into dark flecks, then melted like snow. Soleil winked Nina's way again. "We're heroes. This is a pretty normal Tuesday for us."

_Am I gaping? I'm still gaping._ It took everything in her to stop trembling after coming face-to-face with a nightmare, and the craziness that had followed. Forrest didn't impose, giving her space while still ready to support. She wasn't nearly as nervous around the guy when he had prettier eyelashes and curls than she did. Then again, she didn't exactly dress up on the job.

Wait. Job. That was why her watch was beeping.

She swore at her wrist. What awful timing. She had less than ten minutes to climb all of those stairs and slip out before the feed loop she'd made ended.

Thankfully, this bizarre circus troupe had the same idea. "We need to get out of here," their leader declared. His head turned to her, and her heart started pounding harder. "Do you know where we are?"

Nina swallowed. "About 350 feet under the city of Nohr."

Velouria had furry ears in place of normal human ones, visible now that her hood had fallen. They turned down further. "That's a long run."

"Yeah, and we have—" Check the watch. "—barely nine minutes before someone knows we're here."

Surprisingly, the man didn't inquire further on what she meant. Anyone else would've been nosy about a stranger they found snooping around some dusty lab. He instead directed his team without wasting a second. "Ophelia, Forrest, we need speed for Velouria and Soleil. We need to escape and regroup. I'll take point." His frown was apologetic as he asked, "Ma'am, can you lead us out? I'm afraid we're in unfamiliar territory."

_Then why do I feel like the least prepared one here?_ And she'd come in with, like, twenty game plans! Too bad none of them incorporated insane science experiments and weird space dragons. She nodded. If only her stomach would unclench itself.

The two who could only be described as the magicians of this circus placed glowing hands on their comrades. Soleil took this opportunity to twirl Ophelia, earning a yelp and quiet scolding. Both seemed to float just above the dusty floor. _Whoa._ Their leader forewent this treatment, adjusting his shoes. They were more like greaves, actually. Far different than the ones she'd seen at faires, the dark metal hummed with some sort of energy. He was like... a mage knight. Had they all come from the portal too? Was that what Ophelia had been rambling about?

_Who in the world ARE these guys?_

"Who are you?" It slipped out before she could think better of it. When he looked her way again, the 'eep' escaped before she slapped a hand over her mouth. Was her face burning? It was so burning. Ohhh man, this sucked.

"We don't have time for introductions," Velouria grumbled. Though the beast didn't manifest, her fingernails still looked particularly sharp as she picked at her teeth.

He sighed. "Right, you're right. Ma'am, I do apologize for this."

"For wha—_hey!_" Now her face was definitely burning brighter than a tomato, because this guy had stepped forward and just... swept her up like a child! "Put me down!"

"I'm sorry, but time is of the essence. Please direct us to the exit."

He was right, unfortunately. _All of this, and I didn't even get the data I came here for._ Now she was being carried out like a damsel. Failing a job had never been so humiliating. "...f-fine. But put me down the moment we're out!"

"Yes, of course."

The group spilled out into the hall before awaiting Nina's directions. The speed these people had was insane; she had to grab her braid to stop it from smacking the guy in the face. It was like riding a motorcycle, except her bikes had never had her in a princess carry. She kept waiting for another dark monster to ambush them. Considering how the job had turned out, she expected it. But the halls remained empty. Her headlamp wasn't necessary when those magicians had their... magic? The glow lit up the facility just fine until they began spiraling up the staircase. Her watch beeped again. Five minutes.

_...things don't add up. Even ignoring the crazy stuff._

She peered over the man's shoulder when they finally left that crazy place behind. Her information had been wrong, despite her careful research. While the rest of the facility was dark, power had been routed to that very room. She'd been witness to something nearly unexplainable.

_I don't like being deceived._

"Wait," she told them before they reached the top of the last flight. It was nice to be on her own two feet again. Hopping up the last steps, she slung her backpack sideways and rummaged around. With another hop, she slapped a device just on top of the doorframe. While she didn't get what she came here for this time, that didn't mean she couldn't get something out of this. _I just know someone's going to come check this place out._ Once a decent amount of time passed, she could come retrieve this and play back the footage. With this settled, she reiterated to wait so she could check outside.

According to her timetable, there would soon be a window to duck out and slip into a crowd to disappear into. Only problem was that it was much easier to ignore one person exiting than six. She frowned at Forrest and Ophelia. "Any chance you two could—I don't know, 'cloak us in shadow'?"

"No, but if someone notices, we can handle it," their leader assured. He then gestured. Ladies first.

This was it, she had actually found an honest-to-god knight in this day and age. She was going to explode. At least heading for the door hid the lingering blush. _See, THIS is why I work alone, or with GIRLS._ Too distracting. Deep breaths. Get ready.

The rumbling began. That was her cue. Head poking out, Nina inhaled and waved for them to follow. "Hug the wall," she whispered. Had they ever seen a subway station before? Even if they had, they probably hadn't gone this far down the rails. She didn't want to risk anyone getting hit or electrocuted. _Thank goodness that Velouria lady isn't, erm, bigger right now._ It took some maneuvering before they could safely cross. No one could see them with the train in the way, and as they ran automatically there was no one in the driver's seat to rat them out. The only problem came when they tried leaving the tunnel to the station proper.

"Hey, you!"

An officer. She swore under her breath. _So close._

She was halfway to making up some bullshit story when blonde locks filled her view. "Oh, missus conductor! We have been led here, by the darkest constellations in the deepest of nights, to this radiant hub of life—"

"Okay, ma'am," the officer began, sounding annoyed. "That's real nice, but where you came from is a restric—"

"We came from a _magnificent_ place!" Ophelia fluttered a hand up, then swayed it down like a leaf. "Where the headiest nectar of the gods flows like a river, and you need only but open your heart to accept it! Look!"

Then her hand shot up, the quickness of the motion abruptly halting to tap the officer's nose. The woman in blue furrowed her brows, eyes crossing to stare at the brief glow. It faded quickly. Then, her spine straightened. Nina realized the officer was staring over all of their heads.

"See? We are blessed children of the ever-turning cosmos, arriving at our truest destination!"

"Quit messing around and let's go." Soleil snickered and, to Nina's alarm, reached forward to flick the badge on the officer's chest. No response. " 'Tifa,' huh? Too bad, she's pretty cute."

Forrest sighed, stepping past the now dazed officer. "You said to 'stop messing around.' "

"I know, I know—next time, beautiful." She blew a kiss that went unnoticed before following after.

"Ma'am?" The man sounded a little concerned. _Agh, I'm gawking again!_ Ophelia, who she was staring at, gave a wink worthy of her pink-haired friend before bouncing off. Their leader ventured, "Uh, we might need... a little more assistance. We might be... lost."

"...you know what? Sure. On one condition." Nina faced him, holding out a hand for a shake. That's what one did when making a business offer. "I get you around. You tell me what's going on." Normally one didn't blush while doing business, but she was still working on the 'not freaking out around guys' thing, even in her twenties.

He smiled, shoulders easing. "I can do that." His hand clasped hers, sure but gentle. "Ms...?"

"You first," Nina shot back on reflex. _Ahhhh!_

"Siegbert." After a second longer than was comfortable for her, he let go of her hand.

Her brows furrowed, the name niggling like the pretty boy's face had. This required further research. She shook her head, realizing she didn't have time to stand and stare. They were standing out in the open, and she didn't like that. Paranoia always served her well. She turned to wave the group—_oh creepy, that officer still looks like a zombie—_over to the ticket booth. "Destination first, then my name."

"I understand."

_That makes one of us,_ she muttered to herself.

This was going to be a simple business exchange. She would take them to a place to stay lowkey, interrogate them, then be on her way. Get in, get the information, then leave before they could rope her into anything crazier than an hour ago. Easy-peasy.

Yeah. Right.

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**I've actually not written a lot for the kid-gen of Fates, so this was actually a really fun exercise! Hopefully I wrote them well.**

**This was inspired by an old idea I had probably years ago, which was a modern AU with some superhero/fantasy elements. ...mostly it was an excuse for OC/canon ships BUT I had a lot of fun with the idea, and even contemplated some crossover ideas. Maybe it will see the light of day... eventually. For now, we have this. It was a blast to write. c:**

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